Saturday, August 4, 2012
The Golden Circle
Over three weeks in Iceland and no "Golden Circle"??? We haven't been avoiding these geological treats like we have some culinary treats; the most famous of attractions just weren't on our biking (or hiking) route, and we wanted to save them to see with Tina anyway. It's a good thing we did, because when Gummi heard we were going to take a bus there, he said, "That's ridiculous, I will take you." The only problem was that he was leading day trip glacier hikes during our last two days in Iceland. "No problem, we only need four hours and we will have plenty of light!" So Gummi met us at other Gummi's apartment for a quick dinner after his trek before chauffeuring us around. He liked the potatoes and green salad, but looked at the quinoa salad like it was putrid shark. We had "flat kaka og honkey cut og a tub of butter" in the fridge as a backup.
Thingvellir is the national park that was the meeting grounds of the old parliament and, more interesting, the only place on Earth where there is a divergent plate boundary on land. We walked through separating rock (we were lucky enough to not have it separate at the time); had great views of the lake where people dive in the crystal clear, icy water; and felt a dramatic sense of history in Iceland's sacred ground. Thousands of people were there earlier in the day and the swarms would return the next morning, but we left the park at about 9pm after seeing just four other people enjoying the peaceful calm of of the light summer night.
The main attraction at Geysir is a geysir called Strokkur that sprays/spews/spouts/erupts every 5-6 minutes. The bigger geysir, Geysir (after which the town and all other geysirs get their name), hasn't put on its show for over twelve years. The sprays we saw were probably 50 feet high and were preceeded by teasing bubbles and ripples that built excitement as the pressure built underneath. This was definitely cool to see, but the surprising secondary sights pushed this stop beyond expectations. Strokkur lies (lay?) in a field of steaming hot vents, boiling cauldrons of water, caves filled with eerily calm 100 degree C water, electric blue pools of water, and steaming streams too hot to touch. We had to share our front row seats with about 20 fellow tourists (or perhaps it's the Icelanders who know to come at night), whereas Gummi said you can't get within about ten feet of the roped off area during the day because of the crowds.
Gulfoss was yet another spectacular waterfall. Though two-tiered, bigger and more forceful than others we've seen, and set in a dramatic canyon, driving specifically to see a waterfall raised expectations that were difficult to deliver, at least compared to stumbling upon one while biking or hiking. We saw just two photographers at the waterfall, and it was actually getting dusky departing at 11pm.
Overall, the Golden Circle was great - a touristy route that is so well traveled for many reasons. Having Gummi bring us around at our own pace and at night without crowds was ideal - we really lucked out. After dropping us at other Gummi's apartment at midnight, Gummi had to rush home to get a few hours sleep before leading his morning glacier hike at 7:30. He must sleep a lot in the winter.
Thingvellir is the national park that was the meeting grounds of the old parliament and, more interesting, the only place on Earth where there is a divergent plate boundary on land. We walked through separating rock (we were lucky enough to not have it separate at the time); had great views of the lake where people dive in the crystal clear, icy water; and felt a dramatic sense of history in Iceland's sacred ground. Thousands of people were there earlier in the day and the swarms would return the next morning, but we left the park at about 9pm after seeing just four other people enjoying the peaceful calm of of the light summer night.
The main attraction at Geysir is a geysir called Strokkur that sprays/spews/spouts/erupts every 5-6 minutes. The bigger geysir, Geysir (after which the town and all other geysirs get their name), hasn't put on its show for over twelve years. The sprays we saw were probably 50 feet high and were preceeded by teasing bubbles and ripples that built excitement as the pressure built underneath. This was definitely cool to see, but the surprising secondary sights pushed this stop beyond expectations. Strokkur lies (lay?) in a field of steaming hot vents, boiling cauldrons of water, caves filled with eerily calm 100 degree C water, electric blue pools of water, and steaming streams too hot to touch. We had to share our front row seats with about 20 fellow tourists (or perhaps it's the Icelanders who know to come at night), whereas Gummi said you can't get within about ten feet of the roped off area during the day because of the crowds.
Gulfoss was yet another spectacular waterfall. Though two-tiered, bigger and more forceful than others we've seen, and set in a dramatic canyon, driving specifically to see a waterfall raised expectations that were difficult to deliver, at least compared to stumbling upon one while biking or hiking. We saw just two photographers at the waterfall, and it was actually getting dusky departing at 11pm.
Overall, the Golden Circle was great - a touristy route that is so well traveled for many reasons. Having Gummi bring us around at our own pace and at night without crowds was ideal - we really lucked out. After dropping us at other Gummi's apartment at midnight, Gummi had to rush home to get a few hours sleep before leading his morning glacier hike at 7:30. He must sleep a lot in the winter.
Miscellehneous Iceland
Over the past month, we have jotted down some interesting Icelandic tidbits that never made it in a post. Here they are, roughly in order of discovery:
*Traffic lights turn yellow not only to signal upcoming red, but also upcoming green lights.
*Iceland's population has the highest percentage of Internet users in the whole wide world, at well over 90%. In a country of 320,000, that has interesting consequences. There's actually a new Icelandic term - Fesbokarlydraedi - that means Facebook democracy. A lot of important fallout, reaction, and response to the 2008 economic collapse was driven by FB. The gov't even polled the public about constitutional amendments on FB.
*Entering each town (or village...settlement...), there are not gates, but grates that welcome you. (They keep out livestock.)
*There are very few trees in Iceland. Although we learned that about 30% of the country was wooded when first settled, that figure is now only 1%. That is part of what made driftwood so valuable here (that and it's high salt content serving as a preservative).
*They have Doritos here in several varieties, including Nacho Cheese. We didn't immediately recognize the Cool Ranch - ranch must not translate well so they are actually called Cool American.
*We biked as early as 7am and as late as about 11pm. At both extremes, the sheep about were grazing. We'd like to know more about their daily/circadian rhythms and whether or not they vary by season this far north.
*The unconventional (to us) naming here makes listing the population, such as in a phone book, interesting. With so many Gudmundsons and Johanndottirs around, alphabetical by last name is not too helpful. So, they are listed alphabetically by first name. This isn't overly helpful either, so they have tiebreakers: last name, then profession, then address. This fun fact becomes even more intriguing when you learn that there isn't regulation on professions declared. There are sorcerers, ghostbusters, alien tamers, and Jedi masters listed. (Okay, we never saw a phone book and aren't sure if we could find one if we tried, but loved reading about this.)
*The domestic airline Flugfelag's motto is: We'll be landing shortly.
*We saw a cow with a bra one day. She had about double Q sized utters and actually had some mesh support for them strapped on.
*Gummi told us about a cool trick you can do with your tent: set up the rain fly over a hot vent to create a sauna. We'll try it next time.
*Iceland Air planes are all named after famous mountains/glaciers
*Iceland is home to the world's only Phallological Museum. Of course we checked it out. Field mice to blue whales, they have quite a range of specimens. Seeing the Icelandic handball team players' manhood in silver as a monument to their second place finish in Beijing will be hard to forget, as will reading about the "member of the month" (the giraffe) and looking over contracts for the next human specimens to be delivered.
*Traffic lights turn yellow not only to signal upcoming red, but also upcoming green lights.
*Iceland's population has the highest percentage of Internet users in the whole wide world, at well over 90%. In a country of 320,000, that has interesting consequences. There's actually a new Icelandic term - Fesbokarlydraedi - that means Facebook democracy. A lot of important fallout, reaction, and response to the 2008 economic collapse was driven by FB. The gov't even polled the public about constitutional amendments on FB.
*Entering each town (or village...settlement...), there are not gates, but grates that welcome you. (They keep out livestock.)
*There are very few trees in Iceland. Although we learned that about 30% of the country was wooded when first settled, that figure is now only 1%. That is part of what made driftwood so valuable here (that and it's high salt content serving as a preservative).
*They have Doritos here in several varieties, including Nacho Cheese. We didn't immediately recognize the Cool Ranch - ranch must not translate well so they are actually called Cool American.
*We biked as early as 7am and as late as about 11pm. At both extremes, the sheep about were grazing. We'd like to know more about their daily/circadian rhythms and whether or not they vary by season this far north.
*The unconventional (to us) naming here makes listing the population, such as in a phone book, interesting. With so many Gudmundsons and Johanndottirs around, alphabetical by last name is not too helpful. So, they are listed alphabetically by first name. This isn't overly helpful either, so they have tiebreakers: last name, then profession, then address. This fun fact becomes even more intriguing when you learn that there isn't regulation on professions declared. There are sorcerers, ghostbusters, alien tamers, and Jedi masters listed. (Okay, we never saw a phone book and aren't sure if we could find one if we tried, but loved reading about this.)
*The domestic airline Flugfelag's motto is: We'll be landing shortly.
*We saw a cow with a bra one day. She had about double Q sized utters and actually had some mesh support for them strapped on.
*Gummi told us about a cool trick you can do with your tent: set up the rain fly over a hot vent to create a sauna. We'll try it next time.
*Iceland Air planes are all named after famous mountains/glaciers
*Iceland is home to the world's only Phallological Museum. Of course we checked it out. Field mice to blue whales, they have quite a range of specimens. Seeing the Icelandic handball team players' manhood in silver as a monument to their second place finish in Beijing will be hard to forget, as will reading about the "member of the month" (the giraffe) and looking over contracts for the next human specimens to be delivered.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Day 24: This is Iceland
"The biggest coincidence would be if there were no coincidences."
As we have written before, we were introduced to the "smallness" of Iceland upon our arrival, when our bike-guy told us "if something really goes wrong with a bike, like a busted wheel, just to put it on a bus back to Reykjavik and wait for [him] to send a new one."
We have also written about another fantastic coincidence: running into Gummi, our would-be hiking guide in the Highlands (a five hour bus ride southeast of Reykjavik, on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula (a five day bike ride northwest of Reykjavik).
A handful of similar stories round out a memorable and very telling list:
It's Thursday at The Blue Lagoon, 40 minutes south of Reykjavik but near the Keflavik Int'l Airport. Tina is to arrive from EWR and meet us there. We're not worried about our rendez-vous, despite being at the most visited attraction in the country. We head to the pools just after spotting her from our comfy cafe vantage point and run into a friend of Austin's from high school. His attempt to prevent any maternal embarrassment by saying, "Mom, you remember Jason Handrinos, right?" is muffled by an exclamatory, "It's Mrs. Lehn, my first grade teacher!" we introduced new wives/new fiancés/former teachers and spent some time together floating around one of the most relaxing places on Earth, even if a bit touristy.
It's Wednesday in Reykjavik, and we just got back to "our" apartment when Austin realizes he's missing his sunglasses (many of you probably know this is not yet surprising). Retracing some steps, we come up with a small window in which they went missing. First call is to the Akureyri airport (Iceland's Chicago to Reykjavik's SoCal.). "Are they grey with yellowish lenses?" the Iceland Air receptionist immediately asks. "Yes!!" the forgetful tourist excitedly responds. "Okay, I will put them on the next flight and they'll be in Reykjavik for pick up [in less than three hours]." So basically, it took us two minutes on the phone to call O'Hare Airport and get them to send a lost item to LAX. (Perhaps we should mention that Iceland's second city has a population of 17,000.)
It's Thursday, and we're enjoying an early afternoon coffee in Isafjordur (the Seattle of Iceland). Three days prior, we took a small bus to the Western-most point in Europe - the amazing bird cliffs of Latrabjarg. Into the cafe walks our bus driver, who immediately sees us and comes over to say hello. We smile and tell him about the past few days biking, without mentioning that we still felt he nearly killed us - either by flying off a cliff or giving us heart attacks barely avoiding such an accident.
It's 9pm on Wednesday night, we're packing for Ireland since our bus to the airport leaves at 4:30am, and Tina realizes she doesn't have her wallet (apple...tree!). We've gotten good at retracing steps over the years, and last remembered using the wallet in an off-the-beaten-track coffee shop that morning before "the kids" were even out of bed. Steph rummaged carefully through every bag and crevice of the apt. while Tina and Austin ran to the shop to stall deciding what to do next. Few coffee shops are open at 9pm. Our high hopes that one of six apartments above the store housed the owners were sinking as we rang the fifth bell looking for any sign of life. Austin failed to respond successfully, perhaps due to a language barrier or maybe simply not correctly using the intercom, almost blowing our chance to start our impassioned plea, but the elderly woman came down the stairs to answer the door. She has no affiliation to the shop, "but hold on, I might be able to find a phone number." While we waited outside, she called and was hung up on as it was their children's bedtime, but "they'll call back." She invited us in, she offered us a drink (which we of course refused), and we exchanged travel stories until the owner called back. He had the wallet and would drive to the shop to drop it off, loaded with Krona, Euros, Dollars, credit cards, and ID.
Coincidences happen early and often here in the North Atlantic.
As we have written before, we were introduced to the "smallness" of Iceland upon our arrival, when our bike-guy told us "if something really goes wrong with a bike, like a busted wheel, just to put it on a bus back to Reykjavik and wait for [him] to send a new one."
We have also written about another fantastic coincidence: running into Gummi, our would-be hiking guide in the Highlands (a five hour bus ride southeast of Reykjavik, on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula (a five day bike ride northwest of Reykjavik).
A handful of similar stories round out a memorable and very telling list:
It's Thursday at The Blue Lagoon, 40 minutes south of Reykjavik but near the Keflavik Int'l Airport. Tina is to arrive from EWR and meet us there. We're not worried about our rendez-vous, despite being at the most visited attraction in the country. We head to the pools just after spotting her from our comfy cafe vantage point and run into a friend of Austin's from high school. His attempt to prevent any maternal embarrassment by saying, "Mom, you remember Jason Handrinos, right?" is muffled by an exclamatory, "It's Mrs. Lehn, my first grade teacher!" we introduced new wives/new fiancés/former teachers and spent some time together floating around one of the most relaxing places on Earth, even if a bit touristy.
It's Wednesday in Reykjavik, and we just got back to "our" apartment when Austin realizes he's missing his sunglasses (many of you probably know this is not yet surprising). Retracing some steps, we come up with a small window in which they went missing. First call is to the Akureyri airport (Iceland's Chicago to Reykjavik's SoCal.). "Are they grey with yellowish lenses?" the Iceland Air receptionist immediately asks. "Yes!!" the forgetful tourist excitedly responds. "Okay, I will put them on the next flight and they'll be in Reykjavik for pick up [in less than three hours]." So basically, it took us two minutes on the phone to call O'Hare Airport and get them to send a lost item to LAX. (Perhaps we should mention that Iceland's second city has a population of 17,000.)
It's Thursday, and we're enjoying an early afternoon coffee in Isafjordur (the Seattle of Iceland). Three days prior, we took a small bus to the Western-most point in Europe - the amazing bird cliffs of Latrabjarg. Into the cafe walks our bus driver, who immediately sees us and comes over to say hello. We smile and tell him about the past few days biking, without mentioning that we still felt he nearly killed us - either by flying off a cliff or giving us heart attacks barely avoiding such an accident.
It's 9pm on Wednesday night, we're packing for Ireland since our bus to the airport leaves at 4:30am, and Tina realizes she doesn't have her wallet (apple...tree!). We've gotten good at retracing steps over the years, and last remembered using the wallet in an off-the-beaten-track coffee shop that morning before "the kids" were even out of bed. Steph rummaged carefully through every bag and crevice of the apt. while Tina and Austin ran to the shop to stall deciding what to do next. Few coffee shops are open at 9pm. Our high hopes that one of six apartments above the store housed the owners were sinking as we rang the fifth bell looking for any sign of life. Austin failed to respond successfully, perhaps due to a language barrier or maybe simply not correctly using the intercom, almost blowing our chance to start our impassioned plea, but the elderly woman came down the stairs to answer the door. She has no affiliation to the shop, "but hold on, I might be able to find a phone number." While we waited outside, she called and was hung up on as it was their children's bedtime, but "they'll call back." She invited us in, she offered us a drink (which we of course refused), and we exchanged travel stories until the owner called back. He had the wallet and would drive to the shop to drop it off, loaded with Krona, Euros, Dollars, credit cards, and ID.
Coincidences happen early and often here in the North Atlantic.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Day 23: Hiking Iceland By The Numbers
We actually had some excitement today, but nothing bested reminiscing (statistically) about the hike:
Countless: special deliveries by Gummi's family, carefully planned footsteps, miles away from ordinary.
1120: highest altitude reached, in m
80: top projected winds, in km/hr
62.4: distance hiked, in IMEU
56: published distance of the hike
52: luxury items brought
20:07: time spent hiking, in hrs:mins
18: farthest hiked in 1 day, in IMEU
16: letters in Eyjafjallajokull
9: gears of the busses in/out of the Highlands
7: glaciers viewed (big enough to be named)
6: monuments/stories about dead hikers on the trail
6: hiking poles for the four hikers
5: possible huts for shelter along the way
4: rivers forded by foot
4: days of hiking
3: spectacular rainbows
2: legs of lamb devoured
2: ropes needed to complete the hike
1: trips Gummi has been paid to lead
1: incredible storm
1: night inside
1: broken leg
1: headlamp use (for a broken leg in an incredible storm)
0: serious injuries (to us!), regrets about paying a guide, correct glacier pronunciations, hot pots, showers, earthquakes, eruptions, buildings, pavement, cell phones, night skies
More Reykjavik adventures to come!!
Countless: special deliveries by Gummi's family, carefully planned footsteps, miles away from ordinary.
1120: highest altitude reached, in m
80: top projected winds, in km/hr
62.4: distance hiked, in IMEU
56: published distance of the hike
52: luxury items brought
20:07: time spent hiking, in hrs:mins
18: farthest hiked in 1 day, in IMEU
16: letters in Eyjafjallajokull
9: gears of the busses in/out of the Highlands
7: glaciers viewed (big enough to be named)
6: monuments/stories about dead hikers on the trail
6: hiking poles for the four hikers
5: possible huts for shelter along the way
4: rivers forded by foot
4: days of hiking
3: spectacular rainbows
2: legs of lamb devoured
2: ropes needed to complete the hike
1: trips Gummi has been paid to lead
1: incredible storm
1: night inside
1: broken leg
1: headlamp use (for a broken leg in an incredible storm)
0: serious injuries (to us!), regrets about paying a guide, correct glacier pronunciations, hot pots, showers, earthquakes, eruptions, buildings, pavement, cell phones, night skies
More Reykjavik adventures to come!!
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